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The Inner Circle Audiobook
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(3.00) - 2,795 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
Right on the heels of his New York Times bestselling and National Award-nominated novel, Drop City, T.C. Boyle has crafted an even more captivating tale with memorable characters and a rollicking plot that will delight both his longtime devotees and a legion of new fans. The Inner Circle is a love story narrated by John Milk, a virginal young man who in 1940 accepts a job as an assistant to Dr. Alfred Kinsey, a charming professor of zoology at Indiana University who has just discovered his life's true calling: sex. As a member of Kinsey's "inner circle" of researchers, Milk (and his beautiful new wife) is called on to participate in sexual experiments that become increasingly uninhibited—and problematic for his marriage. For in his later years, Kinsey (a sexual enthusiast of the first order) pushed the boundaries both personally and professionally.
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"Focused on Kinsey and his researchers, this novel takes an interesting time and group of people to explore important themes: devotion, idealism, responsibility. There is conflict in these relationships - sexual, intimate - but, the real conflict seems to be about one's ideals, and what you choose to stand up for."
— Will (4 out of 5 stars)
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“Terrific…Kinsey looms as one of the most wonderfully repellent figures in recent literature, but Circle’s hero is smart, commonsensical Iris, who understands that Kinsey’s mechanistic views of sex fails to account for love, jealousy, and human nature.”
— Entertainment Weekly -
“Kinsey is in some ways a perfect subject for this sly and intrepid novelist…While Boyle is fascinated by the zealous energy of perfectionists like Kinsey, he is at bottom a defender of romance against the tyranny of reason.”
— New York Times Book Review -
“Compelling and subtly humorous…A biting satire of emotional manipulation, sexual indiscretion, and scientific hubris.”
— Boston Globe -
“The Inner Circle may draw readers because of its sexy subject matter, but they will stay for the emotional punch of Boyle’s meditations on love, marriage, and jealousy.”
— San Francisco Chronicle -
“The Inner Circle is a harrowing depiction of how questionable are some of the consequences of sexual liberation…That the novel is a page-turner, with lots of sex in it, only serves Boyle’s purpose all the better.”
— Washington Post -
“This novel considers the conflict between our animal instincts and our human emotions, raising questions about the relationships among sex, marriage, love, and jealousy, and is at once titillating and maddening. Readers everywhere will take a closer look at their own sex lives.”
— Library Journal
Awards
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One of the 2004 New York Times Book Review 100 Notable Books for Fiction
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A New York Times bestseller
The Inner Circle Listener Reviews
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Perstephone, 7/26/2021
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" This is an interesting story, but it doesn't really go anywhere. I couldn't put it down until about half way through. Now I only have about a fourth of it left, but I just don't care what happens. Because nothing really happens. It's just a story about this man's experience in Kinsey's world...which is interesting on it's own. "
— Julie, 2/20/2014 -
" Two stars for everything sex. "
— Tristan, 2/17/2014 -
" a very interesting book - albeit strange at times. "
— Ann, 1/30/2014 -
" One of my favorite books. I can't recommend it more. "
— Tim, 1/28/2014 -
" Really liked this book. The interaction and relationships between the characters is great, as is the story itself. I mean, who doesn't love a good book about sex research?! "
— Lauren, 1/21/2014 -
" I am glad I read this book to have a better understanding of Dr. Kinsey. However, the book got on my nerves because I did not like the characters. "
— Siri, 1/17/2014 -
" Fresh on the heels of his bestselling Drop City, Boyle's tenth novel features fabulous characters, a rollicking plot, and more sex than pioneering researcher Dr. Alfred Kinsey ever dreamed of documenting. I liked Drop City. "
— Walt, 1/12/2014 -
" Started off well but I lost my sympathy for the characters, so that the book felt bleak instead of richly dark. Really good language sometimes, so I'm upping its stars from 2 to 3. "
— John, 1/5/2014 -
" Of an assistant to an obsessive sex researcher and science vs love. Interesting enough as a fictional story for a second read "
— Vivien, 12/31/2013 -
" Historical novel about the life of Dr. Alfred Kinsey and his research on human sexuality. I'm still in shock !! I don't know what to say...I loved this book ! Read it and tell me if I'm normal ! "
— Becky, 12/27/2013 -
" I loved Tortilla Curtain so I sought out another book by T.C. Boyle. This book was not as good for me, but the characters were just as developed. Overall it was a good book but the whole sex triangle was a little weird for my taste. "
— Josephine, 12/19/2013 -
" Great author, fascinating subject, simple shocks, magnetic prose. "
— LMJ, 12/10/2013 -
" B Fictional story of Kinsey--okay, but almost too unrealistic for even fiction "
— Cherie, 5/25/2013 -
" so well-written, so squarely positioned in moral gray-space: problematic, intriguing, and really engrossing. It's about Kinsey, his research, the development of the Institute of Sex Research, and the lives and troubles of the men who worked for him. Highly, highly recommended. "
— Maryn, 4/21/2013 -
" Didn't love it or hate it. It was just a story. "
— Viki, 12/21/2012 -
" An interesting read about a group of researchers cataloging the sexual behavior of American populace in the 1940's. The author very sensitively deals with the inter-personal relationships played out between this small group "
— Vishal, 12/4/2012 -
" This book had its moments, but otherwise it was pretty boring. Man, T.C., you are either so on or so off. "
— Torie, 11/28/2012 -
" Slightly interesting, more than I wanted to know. "
— Victoria, 7/3/2012 -
" Not my favorite of his books. "
— Hannah, 5/17/2011 -
" I think TC Boyle is an astonishinly talented storyteller. I like this better than The Women (the FL Wright one). It would be a good bookgroup companion to Meg Worlitzer's The Position. "
— Lisa, 4/26/2011 -
" A fictional story of what it might have been like to have been part of Kinsey's research. Explores the difference between the objectively scientific and subjective reality. "
— Antoinette, 4/19/2011 -
" This book was a portrait of the people involved in the Kinsey research of the 1940s and 1950s. Who knew that they had this much fun back then? Who cares about boundaries? A great book in the historical fiction oeuvre of T. C. Boyle. "
— Karen, 2/20/2011 -
" One of the things I like about T.C. Boyle's books is that I generally learn a good bit while being vastly entertained. "
— Krista, 2/6/2011 -
" TCB's way of writing is mind boggling.. it's so creative and interesting. It was definitely a memorable novel. He does an amazing job of making the story so believable. "
— Katy, 1/4/2011 -
" Fantastic read. I love this author! One of my 2010 finds. "
— April, 12/28/2010 -
" Interesting fictionalized entryway into the Kinsey inner circle. Got a bit bored about 2/3 of the way through, but glad I stuck with it. "
— Timfksd, 11/28/2010
About the Authors
Scott Brick, an acclaimed voice artist, screenwriter, and actor, has performed on film, television, and radio. He attended UCLA and spent ten years in a traveling Shakespeare company. Passionate about the spoken word, he has narrated a wide variety of audiobooks. winning won more than fifty AudioFile Earphones Awards and several of the prestigious Audie Awards. He was named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine and the Voice of Choice for 2016 by Booklist magazine.
T. C. Boyle is an American novelist and short-story writer. Since the mid-1970s, he has published eighteen novels and twelve collections of short stories. He won the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1988 for his third novel, World’s End, and Frances’ Prix Médicis étranger in 1995 for The Tortilla Curtain. His novel Drop City, a New York Times bestseller, was a finalist for the 2003 National Book Award. He has also won the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award, the Henry David Thoreau Prize, and the Jonathan Swift Prize for satire. He is a distinguished professor emeritus of English at the University of Southern California.
About Michael Kramer
Michael Kramer is an AudioFile Earphones Award winner, a finalist for the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration, and recipient of a Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Award. He is also an actor and director in the Washington, DC, area, where he is active in the area’s theater scene and has appeared in productions at the Shakespeare Theatre, the Kennedy Center, and Theater J.